Paul Day (sculptor)

Paul Day (born 1967) is a British sculptor. His high-relief sculptures in terracotta, resin, and bronze have been exhibited widely in Europe and his work is known for its unusual approach to perspective.^[1]

Major works include:^[1]^[2]

Brussels — An Urban Comedy, a 25 m (82 ft) long terracotta frieze in the Royal Galleries of Saint-Hubert in Brussels
The Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment in London
The Meeting Place, a 9 m (30 ft) tall bronze sculpture inside St Pancras railway station in London, surrounded by a frieze (see below).
Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial (2017), in Victoria Embankment Gardens^[3]
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2021), at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

In 2008 a high-relief frieze was added to the base of The Meeting Place as part of refurbishments at St Pancras, featuring images from the history of the Tube and train: people queuing on platforms or travelling in carriages; soldiers departing for war and returning injured, and repair works following the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The work was the object of controversy when first erected, as one panel depicted a commuter falling into the path of a train driven by the Grim Reaper. However, following discussions with London and Continental Railways (LCR), this panel was replaced with another.^[4]^[5]

Day studied at art schools in the UK at Colchester and Dartington, and completed his training at Cheltenham in 1991. He now lives in a village near Dijon, France, with his French wife, Catherine. Their Anglo-French relationship is an explicit and repeated theme in his works.

The Meeting Place, which is modelled on an embrace between Paul and Catherine, stands as a metaphor for St Pancras's role as the terminus of the rail link between England and France.^[1]^[6] Another contemporary sculptor and critic, Antony Gormley, singled out The Meeting Place when he condemned the current public art works across the UK, stating: "there is an awful lot of crap out there".^[7] Day admitted that "Some will say it is a chocolate box sculpture."^[2]

In December 2017, Day received criticism for accepting a commission to create a sculpture in Moscow of the late Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, "widely regarded as one of the most ruthless dictators in recent history", and responded, "I go with the flow".^[8]

In 2021, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a memorial for Fred Rogers by Day was unveiled at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.^[9] In 2023, Day was announced as the sculptor for the upcoming The Forces’ Sweetheart And Wartime Entertainers’ Memorial planned for the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.^[10]